Dr. Sally Aitken

Sally N. Aitken is a Professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences. She studies the population, conservation, and ecological genetics and genomics of forest trees. How are long-lived and widespread tree species able to adapt to local conditions across large and ecologically heterogeneous ranges?  How do individual trees to tolerate considerable temporal variation in climate over centuries or millennia? What are the genetic and demographic dynamics of species range shifts as climates change? How rapidly and to what extent can populations adapt to rapidly changing climates? Do somatic mutations within individual trees contribute substantially to standing variation? Her research group uses population genomics and common garden experiments to address these questions, and to inform reforestation decisions for new climates.